Olympic Design and National History : The Cases of Tokyo 1964 and Beijing 2008

Abstract

The Olympic Games are processes of “nation building,” through which nations become aware of their distinct identity values and take opportunities to send new messages about their status to the rest of the world. This paper describes how some of the graphic design material of the Tokyo 1964 and the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games visually articulated the investment of national content in the newly modernized identities of Japan in 1964 and China in 2008, through di ff erent uses of historical references.